Awards for two CapitaCommercial Trust’s properties

Singapore, 16 May 2013 – CapitaCommercial Trust Management Limited, the Manager of CapitaCommercial Trust (CCT or the Trust) is proud to announce that two of its properties received awards by the Building and Construction Authority of Singapore (BCA) today. CapitaGreen was awarded the BCA Universal Design GoldPLUS while Capital Tower’s Green Mark accreditation was upgraded from Gold to Platinum, the highest accolade for the Green Mark award in recognition of the building’s high standards of environmental sustainability.

CapitaGreen, an ultra modern Grade A office tower at 138 Market Street is currently under development. This joint development by CCT, together with CapitaLand and Mitsubishi Estate Asia, is scheduled for completion by end 2014. In 2012, CapitaGreen received the BCA Green Mark Platinum award. This year’s Universal Design GoldPLUS (Design) endorses the building’s truly user-friendly features that have been designed for people of all ages and abilities and is a testament to CapitaLand Group’s motto: “Building for People”.

Capital Tower, a 52-storey Grade A office building with a direct link to the Tanjong Pagar MRT, surpassed its earlier certification and won a Green Mark Platinum during this year’s assessment.

Ms Lynette Leong, Chief Executive Officer of the Manager, said, “We are pleased that our efforts have received recognition from BCA. Including Capital Tower, CCT now has four properties with the Green Mark Platinum accolade. The other three properties are CapitaGreen, Six Battery Road and Twenty Anson. With commitment, we have demonstrated that even older, operating office buildings can achieve Green Mark Platinum accolade though it may be more challenging. We have done so with Six Battery Road in 2010 and now, Capital Tower. We are encouraged by BCA’s recognition and will continue to evaluate how we can further improve energy efficiency in our other properties."

Ms Leong added, “CapitaGreen is also the first project in CCT’s portfolio to win the Universal Design award. The assessment of meaningful universal designs is based on ‘building for all’ and is evaluated on connectivity, accessibility, user-friendliness, safety, integrated design, operations and maintenance, with bonus points for innovation and enhancement. These are all factors carefully considered for practical implementation while honouring the architectural philosophy of CapitaGreen. We shall continue to look at ways of improving accessibility in our other properties.”

CapitaGreen - Universal Design GoldPLUS

CapitaGreen, a joint development by CapitaLand, CapitaCommercial Trust and Mitsubishi Estate Asia, will be a 40-storey Grade A, ultra modern and green office tower when completed in the fourth quarter of 2014. The building is designed by internationally-acclaimed and 2013 Pritzker Prize winner Toyo Ito, founder of Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects. Mr Ito seeks to reintroduce lush greenery which once covered the city and CapitaGreen’s architecture is a conceptual expansion of the earth’s surface through the building’s functional and aesthetic features. With the inclusion and integration of numerous energy-saving features in the building’s design, CapitaGreen achieved the Green Mark Platinum, the highest accolade in recognising environmentally-friendly buildings from the BCA in 2012.

In 2013, CapitaGreen was awarded the Universal Design GoldPLUS by BCA. This is in view of the barrier-free and friendly accessibility design within the building which has a net lettable area of 700,000 square feet. These features will be evident even before one enters the building through intuitive way-finding signs such as the use of sculptures as landmark to identify one’s location in the building. Seamless designs for the hearing, visual and mobility-impaired are consulted with the relevant user groups for implementation to enhance ease of movement within the building. At the concierge counter, the height of the counter is lower to cater for wheelchair users and a Hearing Induction Loop System for conversations between the concierge and the customer. Lift car doors will have longer hold duration and there will be an audio message on lift car allocation after tapping one’s card reader at the turnstile.

Other examples of Universal Design features include barrier-free access to and within the building, clear and visually-captivating way-finding signs through the use of sculptures, colours, surface textures/ patterns and English Braille/ tactile indicators at start and end of stairs to the Underground Pedestrian Network. Other must-haves include family-friendly features such as nursing rooms and changing stations in male and female washrooms, and elder-friendly facilities such as grab bars at relevant spaces will also be installed.

Capital Tower - Green Mark Platinum

Set in a landscaped plaza with a prominent water feature, Capital Tower optimises energy efficiency throughout the building. Capital Tower, one of the first office buildings in Singapore to be certified Green Mark Gold upon the launch of the BCA Green Mark in 2005, has been upgraded to the highest Green Mark Platinum rating. Areas of improvement leading to a Green Mark Platinum include enhanced energy and water efficiency, sustainable operation and maintenance, and improved quality of indoor environment.

Through the upgrading of the chiller plant with an optimisation system, efficiency is estimated to improve by more than 26%. In 2007, Capital Tower won the Water Efficient Building Certification awarded by Public Utilities Board of Singapore through its use of NEWater1 for cooling towers and water features constituting 34% of the building’s total water consumption. Carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide sensors are installed at relevant areas to monitor air quality.

Other sustainability efforts include an Environmental, Health and Safety policy, various Standard Operating Procedures for H1N1 flu pandemic, emergency response and contingency plans. In addition, there are efforts such as sharing of Green Mark Office Interior and Green tips with tenants and ensuring certified Singapore Green Building Products are being used at the building.

A Singapore success story and the pillar of Singapore’s water sustainability, NEWater is high-grade reclaimed water. It is produced from treated used water that is further purified using advanced membrane technologies and ultra-violet disinfection, making it ultra-clean and safe to drink.